Aquaculture in Sicily: Ecological and Economic Aspects

In Sicily, the major italian island, both intensive semintensive and extensive sistems of culture of euryhaline fish species are developed. In 1998, in Sicily, the prodution was 2000 t, 20% of the national production. For the successfull of acquacolture, activity must not cause unacceptable modificaitons in water quality and interference whit other uses, as turism, industry, urban, of coastal areas. The aspect are axtensively evalueted in studies on impacts of fish farms on the coastal zones. In this work we wish to delineate structure and problems of acquacolture in Sicily, enphasizing developments, specially of acquacolture offshore and its socioeconomic role.